The present invention relates generally to devices which facilitate bedside infection control in hospitals, and, more particularly, to a storage/carrying device which provides for safe and convenient transport to a patient's bedside of sterile needle/syringe assemblies typically used in medication and blood collection procedures, and, additionally, provides for safe transport to ultimate disposal of such needles and syringes after use, substantially without risk of contaminating contact with the storage/carrying device or the person handling it.
With the widespread use of disposable medical implements, particularly hypodermic needles and syringes, a definite need has developed for ways to safely and conveniently handle and transport such implements to the site of their use, and, to dispose of such implements after use without risk of exposing any person handling them to injury, infection or disease by puncture or contact with a used needle or syringe. The tragic outbreak of the highly contagious AIDS disease has dramatically highlighted the need for safer handling, storage and disposal of such implements.
In today's hospitals, a wide variety of disposable needle and syringe devices are routinely used to administer medication by injection and intravenous ("I.V.") procedures, and for intravenous blood collection. For the typical injection procedure, the nurse or medical technician will pre-fill a sterile needle/syringe assembly with medication at the nurses' station or at a medication cart outside the patient's room. During blood collection procedures, the nurse will either prepare a sterile needle/syringe assembly to draw blood for immediate transfer to a vacuum tube-type collection device, or draw the blood directly into the collector by means of a multi-sample needle/collection tube holder device. For I.V. medication procedures, a butterfly or other intravenous-type needle attachment, which includes a plastic tubing connection, will be attached to an I.V. bag for intravenous, controlled gravity feed of medication to the patient.
Invariably, the nurse will carry the appropriate needles and/or syringes by hand or in a uniform pocket to the patient's beside along with other items normally attendant to an injection, blood collection, or I.V. procedure, such as gauze material, alcohol preps, and bandages. This often presents an unwieldy situation for the nurse who is forced to manually handle multiple items on route to the patient's bedside and while preparing the patient for the injection or venepuncture, thus increasing the risk of dropping or otherwise mishandling the needle or syringe and exposing it to contamination.
Disposal of such needle and syringe devices after use presents potentially more serious difficulties. Once an injection is given, a blood sample drawn, or an I.V. needle removed from a patient, both the needle and/or syringe used in the procedure is contaminated and must be disposed of in a safe manner. It had once been common practice to break or cut the needle after use before transport to ultimate disposal in order to eliminate the sharp end point so as to reduce the risk of puncture, scratching or other injury which might result from handling. In breaking or cutting the needles, however, a substantial danger existed that accidental puncture might occur during the breaking or cutting operations, thus exposing the holder to possible injury and, further, to possible infection or disease as a result of such puncture. In addition, residual medication or blood in the needle or the syringe can splatter onto the person or his clothes, and, potentially harmful fumes from the residual medication could be inhaled as a result of the so-called aerosol effect. Furthermore, the blades of the cutting tool are now recognized as a breeding ground for germs, bacteria and other disease-causing micro-organisms to which an unsuspecting person cutting the needle could be unnecessarily exposed.
Recently, an even greater danger has been recognized in connection with the handling and disposal of used needles as well as other sharp medical implements. It is now recognized that certain diseases, most notably Hepatitis B, can be transmitted by covert percutaneous--i.e., by merely contacting the contaminated needle or implement.
As a result of the foregoing dangers, it is preferred current practice to dispose of such devices in-tact, without dismantling them. However, in disposing of the whole hypodermic needle and syringe, the used needle has sometimes been recapped before disposal with the same protective sheath that was used during shipment from the manufacturer. The resheathing was intended to prevent possible injury while a person carries the needle to a suitable disposal unit. This practice itself, however, can result in accidental puncture or contact while the needles point is being resheathed. Because of this danger it is now recommended by the Center For Disease Control ("C.D.C.") that needles not be resheathed after use.
In this regard, the C.D.C. has been strongly urging hospitals to provide in-room receptacles for disposal of used needle/syringe assemblies in-tact, without recapping the needle. While such disposal devices have been generally satisfactory, they may still have a few shortcomings. In-room disposal devices can be costly and require permanent installation in a patient's room. Moreover, in-room receptacles may not eliminate the inherent risk of contaminating contact or accidental puncture associated with the manual transport of an exposed used needle/syringe assembly even a short distance from the patient's bedside.
Most importantly, the nurse, as a practical matter, almost always has important duties to perform immediately after giving an injection or drawing blood (such as treating the injected area, covering the exposed patient, etc.) which makes walking to a receptacle to dispose of a used needle a lesser priority, and thereby increases the risk of an exposed needle being left on a nearby table or even on the patient's bed. This could be particularly hazardous in the case of medical personnel who leave used needle/syringe assemblies unattended in a psychiatric patient's room for even a few seconds while attending to other duties within or without the patient's room.
Additionally, there may be instances where a disposal device for the whole needle/syringe assembly is not desired. For example, in emergency rooms, the urgency of a particular emergency situation may not permit time to seek out an appropriate disposal unit for the used needle/syringe assembly. In the absence of an immediately available disposal device it is likely that the used needle could be left lying unattended and unsecured, or an attempt might be made to resheath the needle. In either event, there are substantial risks of accidental puncture by or contact with contaminated needles.
In order to overcome such difficulties, various approaches have been advanced for removal of the needle from its syringe after use and safely storing it for ultimate disposal (see, e.g., the storage/containment device disclosed in Applicant's pending application Ser. No. 07/012,949 filed Feb. 10, 1987). While the used needle presents the most significant risk of injury or infection through accidental puncture or scratching of a person's skin, the used syringe may also present a risk of infection. For example, a used syringe can contain residual blood or medication which, if exposed to a person's skin, may be absorbed topically (particularly if a cut or break is present) and may cause a serious internal infection or other reaction. Thus, even where such a needle removal and storage device is employed, the used syringe will still require independent, safe disposal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new storage/carrying device which can be economically fabricated, and which is of a durable yet lightweight construction, for conveniently and safely storing and transporting sterile needle/syringe assemblies to a patient's bedside for use in medication and blood collection procedures, thus eliminating the burden on the nurse to manually carry these implements to the patient's bedside and the associated risk of accidentally dropping them or otherwise exposing them to contamination.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new storage/carrying device for conveniently and safely storing and transporting used hypodermic needles and syringes, as well as butterfly or other intravenous-type needle assemblies, to ultimate disposal without risk of contaminating contact with the device, or of exposing the person handling the device to injury, infection or disease by puncture or contact with the used needle or syringe.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new storage/carrying device for conveniently and safely storing and transporting used needle/syringe assemblies to ultimate disposal, in-tact, thus eliminating both the need for potentially costly in-room disposal receptacles, and the risk of accidental puncture or contact with a contaminated needle inherent during manual transport to such disposal devices.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a new storage/carrying device for storing and transporting used needles and syringes to ultimate disposal which is compact in size so as to be easily locked inside a standard hospital medication cart when unattended, thus obviating the risks caused by leaving unattended receptacles in patients' rooms.
The foregoing specific objects and advantages of the invention are illustrative of those which can be achieved by the present invention and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages which can be realized. Thus, these and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the invention, both as embodied herein or as modified in view of any variations which may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention resides in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.